'Maybe Stan would still be here': Family not told about brother's first suicide attempt
The sister of a man who hung himself said 'he may still be here' if their family had been informed by health professionals he had previously tried to take his life by hanging.
On May 4 this year, 48-year-old Stanley Evans' body was discovered at his Wolverhampton home.
At an inquest before the Black Country Coroner's Court in Oldbury, Senior Coroner Zafar Siddique heard about a number of difficulties Mr Evans had been going through, including the death of his mother for whom he had been the primary carer, and a court case threatening to evict him from his council property.
Giving evidence at the inquest, his sister Alison Evans said: "Everybody loved him. He cared for mum for many years."
She explained he lived with their brother in their mother's former home.
Elaine Coulson, a mental health nurse based at Penn Hospital, outlined how he had been referred to her team on April 13 after an appointment with his GP, when he admitted that he had been experiencing suicidal thoughts around hanging, and had also carried out a failed attempt to hang himself.
He attended an assessment with Miss Coulson on April 14. By the end of the meeting, the psychiatric nurse judged he was at a 'mild to moderate' risk of self-harm, because he told her that he was no longer having the same suicidal thoughts.
After hearing Miss Coulson's evidence, Ms Evans said: "If we had been told then maybe Stan would still be here today."
Senior Coroner Siddique concluded Mr Evans died from suicide.
